Taiwanese traveller to Japan tests positive for SARS

Fears that the deadly SARS virus has entered Japan has increased after a Taiwanese man who returned home following a tour of Japan tested positive for the killer disease, a Japanese official says.

"We were just informed by Taiwanese authorities that the Taiwanese man who visited Japan and showed SARS-like symptoms has tested positive," an official with the Japanese Health Ministry said.

The 26-year-old physician came to Japan on May 8, toured the country's western regions, and returned to Taiwan on May 13.

The Ministry says the doctor had a fever a day after he arrived in Osaka.

On Friday, the Japanese Health Ministry said the doctor had once cared for at least one SARS patient in Taiwan, but his hospital later claimed that the doctor did not have direct contact with a SARS patient.

Japan is yet to record a confirmed case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).